Mike D’Antoni is a candidate to be the Nuggets’ next head coach. (Ethan Miller, Getty Images)

There is rarely a mention of Mike D’Antoni that doesn’t include “seven seconds or less,” a reference to his revolutionary style of play that made the Phoenix Suns one of the most exciting teams in the league in the mid-2000s. Led by point guard Steve Nash and complemented by Amar’e Stoudemire and Shawn Marion, the Suns brought a new brand of play to the NBA, with speed, pick-and-rolls and open 3s.

McCallum changed the game in his own right with the book and his near three decades of covering the NBA for SI. He’s he remained close to D’Antoni, and Nash, over the years, so when word got out that the Nuggets, with whom he started his NBA career in 1997, had interviewed D’Antoni for their head-coaching job, McCallum was kind of enough to offer his thoughts:

Do you think D’Antoni is opposed to a rebuild?

MCCALLUM: “Let’s preface this by saying as close as I am to him, I don’t know. But my best guess is that I can’t see him taking a rebuilding job. Essentially, the Knicks were a rebuilding job and, as weird as it sounds, the Lakers kind of turned into one. They were two not very good teams. The Knicks were clearly a rebuilding job. The Lakers job is tough to turn down, even if they have you and me in the backcourt.

“My answer to that is, I don’t know. We haven’t talked specifically — we always talk around this stuff — but it would surprise me to see him take a rebuilding job.”Read more…

Happy Boxing Day. You might have caught the Lakers win against Melo and the Knicks yesterday. While Kobe put up big numbers and Pau Gasol made two great plays late, one could argue that the biggest importance was Steve Nash, playing in just his second game since returning from injury.

After the game, coach Mike D’Antoni told reporters:

“A point guard like him who has that respect, a lot of it is the credibility of doing it for a lot of years,” D’Antoni said after the Lakers beat the Knicks 100-94 for their fifth consecutive win. “He just puts everything in perspective and calms everybody down and gives you a chance to win every night. He keeps your energy up on defense because you’re not fighting yourself on the other end and you’re not being demoralized by things happening there. Everybody’s getting the ball, there’s a flow, and it feeds and it builds. It’s a like a little snowball that keeps getting bigger.”

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.